Date:19/04/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/04/19/stories/2007041922430500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

It took them only 30 minutes

Staff Reporter

NEW TACTIC: The team from Ahmedabad carrying out the Catch-Neuter-Vaccinate Release programme in Bangalore on Wednesday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: At first glance, it looked as if the five green nets were trembling on their own. A closer look and one saw five dogs inside, crouched and panting as they waited.

With surgical precision, each dog was picked up, washed, administered anaesthesia, neutered and then placed in the kennels for recuperation — all in 30 minutes.

Thus began the new Animal Birth Control Programme, "imported" from Ahmedabad, on Wednesday.

Bogged down by intense media glare and interruptions from all sorts of quarters, a team of 14 professionals from Animal Help Foundation sterilised and vaccinated five dogs at a makeshift tent behind the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) office at Mahadevapura zone.

"This was just the inaugural function and because of constant breaks the team had to take in the face of queries from the public, we were able to sterilise only five," Rahul Sehgal, coordinator of the foundation, told The Hindu. The team promises to neuter at least 40 dogs a day. It has been given the mandate to sterilise 5,000 dogs in the next five months. The advantage of Catch-Neuter-Vaccinate Release (CNVR) programme, as against the animal birth control programme of local non-government organisations, is that the dogs are caught, neutered and released the same day. "If we leave them in the kennels for too long, then they could end up in fights and contagious diseases could spread," P.S. Bagade, a veterinary doctor in the team, said.

The CNVR programme also claims that the chances of the animal developing post-operative complications are almost nil. Dr. Bagade said that immediately after the operation, the dog is given two sets of antibiotics, one for instant protection against infection and another shot of penicillin to ward off any chances of it developing bacterial infections post-operation.

Before the release, dogs are also vaccinated and given medicines, including multivitamins, to protect them from diseases, especially skin-related, he said.

To ensure that the dogs are released in the same area they are caught from, the team has numbered clips as marks of recognition. "Our driver also notes the colour and the number of dogs picked up in the area," said Dr. Bagade.